5 Mistakes to Avoid in B2B Social Media Marketing

5 Mistakes to Avoid in B2B Social Media Marketing

Content quality is one of the most important aspects of content marketing, so paying attention to the relevance of what you post, in addition to the why and when is essential. Crafting original content using data analytics is one way to broadcast your brand message. Here are other ways to be heard in a crowded space.

In many aspects, social media has changed the way we live. We go to a new restaurant based on positive online reviews, interact with friends without the constraints of time or location, and can access a worldwide audience like never before. Here are a few statistics to consider:

The internet has 3.17 billion users, and there are 2.3 billion active social media users.

91% of retail brands use two or more social media channels.

Internet users have an average of 5.54 social media accounts.

Social media users have risen by 176 million in the last year.

1 million new active mobile social users are added every day – that’s 12 each second.

Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp handle 60 billion messages a day.

With so many messages, images, and advertisements on social media, how can your business-to-business (B2B) social media marketing stand out amidst the noise?

Here are five mistakes to avoid to ensure your message is heard.

1. Posting Too Much

Do you have that friend on Facebook that posts a few times a day and it starts to get annoying? That one friend who uploads pictures of her morning latte, her dog Chloe, and the lunch out with friends? If comments were anonymous, you would probably be tempted to write something sarcastic. Social media marketing certainly is a balance between promoting brand awareness and not overwhelming your potential customers.

Here are some general guidelines for how often you should post from online marketer Keran Smith:

2. Posting Irrelevant, Inconsistent Content

Your audience is busy and easily distracted. Therefore, your content should be relevant, consistent with your brand, interesting, and eye-catching. Never post without an image and always test your links before you post. In fact, a recent survey on social media marketing best practices found that videos and images perform best for companies. The content you choose to share and promote should reflect these trends–match what your audience wants to see.

3. Not Optimizing Your Profile

If the main purpose of your social media posts is to increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your website, it’s important to consider what customers will see when they click on your link.

“Social media marketing provides a tremendous opportunity to drive traffic to your B2B website. You can optimize your profiles with a detailed description of your company and a link that directs back to your site,” advises Emily Ahlbum of online marketing company Emagine.com. “It’s also important to know that social media content is now indexed by search engines. So be sure to consider each tweet or status update as a piece of content that can be optimized for search engines.”

4. Not Knowing Where Your Clients Are

Depending on your industry or the services you offer, your audiences’ demographics may vary vastly. Tech start-ups tend to comprise of a younger audience, while established local business owners may skew a little older. For example, the 25-34 age group is the largest age group on social media but not by much.

“Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest fall into this category. Millennials age 18-24 consist of the most users on SnapChat, Vine, and Tumblr. LinkedIn is the odd-one-out, with 35-44-year-olds leading the way,” explains Tyler Becker on Social Media Week.

5. You Get What You Pay For

In this day and age of social media marketing, many times you never get to see your client face-to-face. Your calling card is your social media shares, and your storefront is your website landing page. With this in mind, consider working with a social media marketer to get the cleanest campaign with the best results. Sloppy posts, not scheduling posts, or an inconsistent message invalidates the integrity of your company and decreases viewer click through rates.

Final Takeaway

Social media marketing can be one of your best assets or your greatest struggle. Avoiding the five mistakes outlined above and reaching out for additional help can help you attain your goal of reaching more clients and generating more leads.

This post was originally published on this site on November 20, 2016. We republish posts on Saturday for readers who may have missed it the first time around. This post is by Eleonora Israele from Business2Community, it originally appeared on The Salesforce Blog, and is legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.

5 Mistakes to Avoid in B2B Social Media Marketing was last modified: August 5th, 2017 by Meltwater